The Ordinary
[thoughts from ~burning woman~ by Sha'Tara]
What qualifies as the most frustrating aspect of "changing one's nature"? Of becoming someone you wish to be, but realize fully you are not?
The ORDINARY.
What is the substance that changes an ordinary human being into, say, a hero or a saint?
The ORDINARY.
What do you sift through to find answers to your world's greatest problems?
The ORDINARY.
Now then, how do we recognize our heroes, our saints, our "messiahs" and our "saviors" in today's world? We don't, and the reason is simple: They are hidden in...
The ORDINARY
.
I could go on, but the point is, at least verbally, made. That is why those who appear extraordinary, who constantly hold the headlines of the Media and the Press are no heroes and no saints, usually quite the opposite -- rare exceptions noted -- but remember that those exceptions are not seeking the Media's attention and usually resent its intrusion in their lives. Any amount of limelight always tarnishes the growing pearl. And just imagine this: Jesus, teaching the "Sermon on the Mount" -- perhaps the greatest spiritual teaching ever put in words on this world -- being recorded live and replayed on Sunday morning TV, segmented between commercials for a Ford truck, Maxi pads and a new McDonalds entree, then cleverly edited to end in time for the pre-game Super Bowl show.
This is another of those thoughts that speak of spiritual evolution and how such a thing is actually achieved. In my youth, brought up in strict Catholicism, I learned this fact: "There are no short-cuts to sanctification." Of course, I wasn't supposed to learn this, I was supposed to remember just long enough to pass my "Confirmation" tests. Who, in my world, gave a flying whatever to sanctification anyway? But I found it a fascinating attraction. In my mind I practiced "sanctification" and sometimes these mind exercises actually translated into changed perception of my social milieu; of greater acceptance of those who considered me, an alien, to be their enemy and would never let me forget it. Yes, well, it's called racism and jingoism, among other choice epithets. What I remember of those moments when my desire to be better than myself overcame my normal response is the great peace that came into my heart. I could, for a moment, cease my struggle against an unjust world. I could accept the inevitable and in doing so I could change it. All of my life this quest has remained an endless series of terrible see-saw battles, most of which it seems I lost.
But I never lost my taste for that elusive goal and each time I strayed from the quest, I eventually felt the pull to return to it and I did. That's how it is, I suppose. And what is "sanctification" anyway? It's putting spiritual awareness and values above the material/physical and somehow managing to live that way among the throngs of earth-centered people. It is awareness of one's full responsibility to life as one encounters it in all of its forms. It encompasses all of those terribly politically incorrect concepts such as self-denial, self-sacrifice, selflessness through servanthood, love for enemies (real or imagined!), and finally, and above all, humility.
Are there other paths one could choose other than this "extra" ordinary path of sanctification to achieve human evolution? To move beyond the current nature's obvious limitations and weaknesses? To become truly great without being aware of the greatness part?
I haven't found any. I've studied many paths, and been introduced to many, some very tempting. But all of them invariably brought me to the edge of a cliff. They promised me wings, certainly, but I was just intelligent enough to watch what happened to those who jumped off on the promise of wings (for which they had paid good, hard cash): they crashed and “died,” and that self-empowerment remained, for them, as elusive as ever.
There is no cliff edge at the end of the quest on the path of sanctification because it is a never-ending stairway to heaven, the heavens, and beyond, into infinity, into the unknown, into ever-expanding awareness. Despite the hardships, tempting, yes? But why, if so difficult? Could it be we can sense these challenges are real in an increasingly meaningless, artificial world? Could it be that having spent so much time and effort participating in the claimed “extraordinary,” the endless fest of “world-class” everything, that suddenly we find ourselves hollow? Empty of purpose; empty of any reason to exist other than to exist? Could it be that we are so sated with superlatives in everything, we are dying and are beginning to realize we don’t want to die, not without a truly personal reason?
Best regards,
Leland
Love ya!
Jane
Cheers,
Dan
Right off what is wrong with ordinary?
I'm quite pleased being rather ordinary...
I look for no recognition or that sort of thing...
Regarding broadcasts, sadly it's those commercials
that support and pay for the repeats of those things
considered out of the ordinary or just plain entertainment...
Keep these coming Regis they are always good to give the
mind things to ponder upon...
Love and Light
Lily
The primary religion of the ordinary is to be fruitful and accumulate mammon. Both are destructive to the earth because they consume more and more of the earth's resources without giving back like most living things. Oh, there are the causes that try to give back something, but what they give back, is only a fraction of what is taken.
Somehow, very soon, those extraordinary among us (like Jesus) must get everyone politically incorrect for we are headed for a Heilbroner disaster where the human train goes off the cliff, taking the poor and undeveloped, first, followed by the ordinary, and finally by the rich and famous, with it.
Ron